40reef: livesand

[Andrew]

Another question pertaining to my setup. . .
planning on going w/ cpr Bak Pak 2/R, lots of live rock, and was reading a book that encouraged not to use a sand medium b/c it collects nitrates in a berlin type setup(unless a plenum utilized). Does this mean I should not use the live sand (that I already have)?, or does it refer to non-live sand?Or, will I just have to make more frequent water changes?

(I can't do a plenum because it would take up 1/3 or more of total area in my tank, and greatly restrict view)

And, is it possible to have too much light over the tank(esp. if I'm going to have corals w/high and low intensity requirements? one member recommended 2--175w MH bulbs (or one 400w), would give me 350w+, not to mention whatever wattage of actinics.

I appreciate all you guyses' Help!

[matt]

The current trend is: Plenum bad; DSB, good...

You might check out some of Ron Shimek's articles on a deep sand bed; there's a good basic one linked to a sticky in his forum on reefcentral. You'll learn a lot from that, I suspect.

Don't worry about your corals getting use to the halides; they'll do fine. Trust me on this. I moved every coral I had from an 18" deep tank with 2 55W P.C. to a 16" deep tank with 2 175W halides. Mushrooms, polyps, etc, all okay. They'll like it, I promise....

Matt

[Tim Marvin]

175w halides are not that strong and should cause no problems. Even 250w are easy to acclimate corals grown under low lighting. I would take it a little slower with the 400w halides though and bring up the exposure time over a week or two. 400w halides will provide the best light and intensity. I have found 250w DE/sunlight supply will keep your color, but 175 and 150s tend to turn everything green or brown. I believe they turn green and brown in an effort to try to produce enough food for themselves, which would indicate a little more light would greatly improve overall health.